Red Shoes
by muffnbootz
Summary: Ichigo wasn't around, and one of her flats had been thrown across the room.


**Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. All-Star Converse belongs to the Converse shoe company. I claim nothing. **

* * *

With her fingers fumbling around the end of the wooden door, she pushed, making it slide open. Instantaneously, the light from the window on the opposite side of the room flashed into her face, causing her to squeeze her eyes shut again. Groaning quietly, she smacked the bottom of her palm to her eyes and began to rub as she lifted herself up, and pushed her legs up and around with a groggy half spin. As her feet started to touch down on the cool floor, she shivered slightly, and muttered out a tired, "Morning."

Leaning on her back against the top shelf of the closet that served as her temporary bed, she continued to rub her eyes. But the customary grunt that would usually answer her quiet greeting didn't come. Hand pausing mid-rub, she noticed, and moved her hand over to allow her left eye to peek through. "Ichigo?" Tiny feet embracing the chilly floor, she walked over to her friend's empty bed, except for the snoring lion-stuffed animal that was Kon.

"Huh." Nibbling on her bottom lip, she wandered back over to the other side of the closet and yanked open the dresser drawer that sat on the floor in the corner. Pulling out a light blue dress with red and orange circles printed on the bottom of it, she then dug behind the rest of her clothes and pulled out her under things. Wrapping them in her dress, she gave a slight nod and bit down on her lip. Twisting to face the door, she watched and waited. And waited. And waited.

But Ichigo never walked through the door, which was odd to her, because she'd never woken up in his house without him actually being in it somewhere if he knew she was still up in his room. If she slept longer than him, he'd always check on her every few minutes, and in the time she'd been up, she would have expected him to have done so already. _I'm too impatient_, she thought to herself, and grabbed one of the folded towels that she'd kept on the floor next to the dresser and shut the closet door back.

As she walked down the hall, she could hear Isshin down in the kitchen and detected the faint sound of the television running. Karin and Yuzu were still both in their room judging by the noise Rukia heard as she passed by, and she judged that the bathroom was empty as she pushed her way through the door that hung ajar. Turning the water on, she rubbed her neck.

It was Sunday, so neither of them had to be at his school that day. But Ichigo usually slept in a little later on Sundays, unlike her, who was always up either at dawn or a little after. He was probably down on the first floor of the house. But if that was the case, she would've heard some sort of screaming commotion as the elder Kurosaki provoked his son into a fighting wrath. "So weird. But I wonder… ah. Whatever." She mumbled, and chuckled to herself as she pulled the night shirt over her head.

* * *

Walking out of the steaming bathroom, Rukia struggled to pull the bottom of the sundress that was sticking due to moisture off of her legs as she tried to keep herself from tripping. While attempting this, she worked to quickly shut the door completely before the annoyingly high-pitched fire alarm started to blare. The first time it had gone off, it was in the middle of the night, and her whole body had lurched from shock as her heart beat quickly from the sudden burst of fear that had raced through her. Ichigo had found her as he had sprinted out of his door and down the hall, standing in the middle of the hallway with a towel wrapped around her head and glancing quickly around as she tried to find the source of her panic. Sliding to a stop, he'd found her wide eyed and mouth gaping, and he'd literally dragged her back to his room before his family (who, at the time, hadn't known she'd existed) saw her. She'd listened through his bedroom door as he explained to his eccentric father that he'd waken up and couldn't go back to sleep, so he wanted to go ahead and start the day. His father completely threw the story to the side and mockingly asked Ichigo for details about the girl he'd snuck out to see. They'd fought.

Still fussing with her dress, she glanced further down the hall and glared at the circular little piece of work that hung menacingly on the ceiling. Ichigo still picked on her about it, reaching up to press the test button to make it scream obnoxiously loud from time to time whenever they both passed under it. Every time, he thought it was hilarious. Every time, she just wanted to kick him where it'd hurt.

She made her way downstairs, where Yuzu was now preparing breakfast and Isshin was watching what she had deemed 'the moving picture box' as she'd guessed. Throwing his head back to hang off of the back of the couch, Ichigo's father threw her a giant grin. "Well, hello there, my future daughter-in-law!" He laughed as her faced flashed a bright shade of crimson.

"Da-aaaaad!" Yuzu turned away from the stove, and placed both hands on her tiny, apron-clad hips. Flashing a sunny smile at Rukia, she called, "Good morning, Rukia-chan! Uh, Ichi-nee and Karin aren't here right now. "

Lifting an eyebrow, Rukia crossed her arms. So that explained why he wasn't anywhere to be found. He'd left without her, the jerk. She realized that she was wrong about Karin being in her room earlier, as well.

Turning back to the stove, Yuzu flipped an egg over in one of her frying pans. "They should be back, soon. Brother said to tell you he'd be back really soon if you woke up before he got home. Breakfast is almost ready, I'll have you a plate made in a minute, mk?"

Nodding, the small woman glanced over at the living room, where Isshin was still watching her, his head upside down. She always wondered if her face ever showed an expression fitting the creepy feeling he gave her, mixed with the amusement of his just plain strangeness. "Oh, Rukia-chan! He also told my dear Yuzu to keep me away from you! Why, oh why doesn't that boy trust me?" Throwing his hands on his face, he fell over onto his side and rolled around on the couch, wailing out fake tears. She shot Yuzu a slightly concerned look. Yuzu rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders.

Deciding to leave the house for a walk up and down the street to make up for being left behind, she walked over to the front door, but stopped suddenly as she found one of her black flats upside down on the other side of the room. "Wha-"was all that she could get out, before the front door flew open and Karin shot into the house with an arm full of bags. Hopping on one leg at a time, she ripped her tennis shoes off and continued on into the house, stomping up the stairs, and into her room, judging by the sound of a door slamming from upstairs that everyone in the house could hear.

Rukia was still trying to recover herself from the sudden flurry of overly-excited pre-teen as Ichigo pushed her over to get into the door. "Hey!" she yelped, and slapped him. Lifting his eyebrows and pushing his lips forward, he looked down at her as he rammed his side into her and pulled the door closed. She kicked him. "Fine, then." Judging by the tone in his voice, he was playing serious with her. That meant that he was probably going to be annoyingly irritating the rest of the day. Kicking off his worn shoes, he finished with "You won't get the gift I got you," and casually strolled into the dining room after giving her another shove.

"Gift?" Body perking up, she ran on her toes over to Ichigo, who held a plastic bag-wrapped box. "Can I have it?" she asked, excitement cracking through her voice.

"Nope. You're too abusive." For that, he earned a mild glare, as his dad tip toed behind Rukia and bent down to look over her shoulder… quite literally. As she watched Ichigo's face fold down into a deadly glare, she glanced to her right, meeting Isshin's close face for only a split second before it was grasped by his son's large hand, shoving it away. "Nothing for you, old man." They could hear Karin's door slam again and her foot steps up above.

In his overly dramatic way, Isshin placed both hands on the sides of his face and stared at his son, brows furrowing, mouth forming a perfect 'o'. "Noooothing? Nothing, for your dear father?" Running over to the blown-up poster of the children's deceased mother, he pushed his whole body against it. "Oh, Masaki! What's happening to the children we raised?" he squealed and continued to sob fake tears, until Karin's foot connected with his face. Jumping off the last two steps of the stairs, she yelled, "Quit that, Goat Chin!" Pushing him over, she sighed through her nose and walked over to the dining room table. Snatching up the box, she handed it back to her brother. "Why don't you take her upstairs and show her?"

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, sure. Hey, Yuzu? We'll be back down for breakfast in a minute, ok?"

The older twin spun around and nodded. "Mk, Ichi-nee!"

* * *

Rukia stared at the box in her lap. It was long and not very wide, with grayish-black coloring and a solid star placed in the middle of a hollow circle emblazoned on the top lid. "All-Star Converse" was printed on the outer side of the circle. Inside were a pair of bright red high-top canvas and white rubber shoes, similar to the tennis shoes of this world that she couldn't stand, but nowhere near as bulky and seemingly flat like her slippers. She wasn't sure what she thought of them at first, but she was growing to like them. Then it hit her.

Launching herself up from the bed and punching Ichigo in the back of the head, she yelled, "Why did you mess with my shoes?"

He rubbed the spot and growled between grit teeth, "So I could know what size you are, you ungrateful brat."

"You couldn't put it back like I had them?"

"Well hol-ly crap. Sorry. Do you like the stupid things, or not?"

Her face softened, and she sat back down. "Yeah, I do, actually!"

Sighing, he leaned back in his chair. "Well, try them on, so I can see if I got the right size. Forgot to get you socks, though. Sorry. Borrow some of Karin's."

"In the house?"

"Juuuuuust put them on. I really don't care."

Bending down to figure out the lacing, she asked, "Where did you and your sister go?" Ichigo rolled over closer to her spot on the bed and grabbed her thin right leg, placing it on his lap as he laced her shoe correctly for her. "There was a large department store down in the shopping district that's going out of business next week, so everything was marked down to the point of it all being stupidly cheap. Karin's been bothering me since Tuesday to take her. Blew her whole month's allowance, but she's happy, especially with that new soccer ball of hers. We went so early to try and beat the crowds, but we had realized really quick that almost half the town had the same idea. There, let me see your other foot."

Complying, she stared at her now bright red right foot as he fussed over her other one. It felt odd to not have her ankles showing and bare like they always were with her flats, but she enjoyed how these felt. "Interesting." When Ichigo finished the other shoe, he threw that one down. "Comfortable?"

Standing up, Rukia walked around the room. "Yeah. I think I could get used to them."

Ichigo folded one of his legs up into his desk chair as he leaned forward, hands placed on his knees. "Now what you do is you get all your friends to write on them. You've seen mine, right?"

"Yeah. I always thought they were pretty grubby looking."

One of his eyes twitched. "Anyways, get people to write and draw on them."

"Why?"

Throwing his head back, he explained with an exasperated tone, "As a type of memento, you idiot. People write names, inside jokes, nick-names, little pictures, anything. It's just a way of remembering and expressing yourself to the world."

"And why would I want the world knowing about my personal life?"

His faced formed a scowl. "You really need to pull the stick out of your butt." Sighing, he continued, "Get people to write things on them, and wear them all the time. It's a comfort type thing. Whenever you have to leave for the Soul Society, you can take them with you, and it will be a little reminder of your time staying in our world."

She flexed her feet, turning them, staring at the bright red shoes that were really starting to appeal to her. The white and blue star on the side of the higher top of the shoe continued to catch her eye. It was a simple idea, really. But she kind of liked it. "Alright, then. I want you to be the first to sign them." She slid the closet door open, and reached for her marker box, pulling it out and handing it to Ichigo. Snapping open the box, he pulled out a black sharpie. "Give me a foot."

Walking over to him, she placed one hand on an arm rest of his chair as she placed her right foot on his folded leg, using her other hand to fold her dress in a way as to not flash him. Using his left hand to grab her ankle to help steady her, he then pulled off the top of the marker with his teeth. On the white toe of the shoe, he scribbled "Ichigo was here". Capping the marker, he looked up into her face as he said, "Done." She smiled back down at him.

"What?"

"Thank you."

"No problem." He gave a half smile back up at her.

She smiled even wider. He fell back into a scowl. Then, Rukia stuck out her tongue, and asked, "Uh, Ichigo? Can I have my leg back?"

"Huh-" he then noticed that he'd still been hanging on to her ankle, and, strangely enough, he hadn't let go. Releasing his grip, he muttered, "Sorry" as he noticed Kon still asleep on his bed. Quick to change the subject, he growled, "Is he really still asleep?"

Pulling her leg down, she waved it off, saying "It's probably for the better. Let's go eat, I want to show off my new shoes and get some more signatures."

Nodding his head, he threw himself up from the chair and followed her.


End file.
